DESCRIPTION (Taken from the application) The GRASP Center Executive Committee has established goals and objectives for our P/F program 1. to enable young investigators (Instructor or Assistant Professor level, as a rule) to begin a research project, and to obtain enough data for submission of a proposal seeking independent funding, 2. to enable established investigators to start work in digestive disease research, and 3. to allow established digestive disease researchers to change the direction of their research, and to pursue new avenues of scientific investigation within digestive diseases. The GRASP P/F awards have averaged approximately $8,000 per project in order to attract and encourage as many basic scientists and clinical investigators as possible to digestive disease research. In recent years our allocations have been somewhat larger due to the center's decision to increase the total funds available for pilot projects. We review this policy each year, and in general have held to the view that larger awards to a smaller number of investigators will be inconsistent with our goals. We receive many P/F applications during each annual review cycle, and we are unwilling to disappoint all but a handful of the good investigators who have submitted excellent proposals. The success to date of P/F project awardees in competing for peer-reviewed awards justifies this policy.